The Apple Test and Other Truths
by Nifty Kitten
Summary: Legato talks about what really happened, including the truth about and fate of Nicholas D. Wolfwood.


_Trigun_ and the characters thereof are copyright Yasuhiro Nightow. No infringement is intended. This story is copyright (2001, 2002) Bonnie D. Bonifield.

**The Apple Test and Other Truths**  
--Nifty Kitten

They told you the truth. They just fudged a little on the details. Like the way it all came down in the end. And who the good guy's sidekick really was. 

He was a gun-slinging priest. He was a cynical sidekick. He was a judas. He was a man. He carried a cross. He carried a gun. He was Nicholas D. Wolfwood. He was Chapel the Evergreen. 

He called it the Punisher. They called him 'the man who rings the black funeral bell'. Yes, they told you about that, but they let you believe it was a mistake. 

They tried so hard to have it both ways. He's dangerous. He's just a sidekick. People fear him. People mistake him for someone else. 

He was raised by a gun-slinging priest. I'm not sure I ever knew his name. He was tall and thin, with dark hair and a big gun. A man of the cloth, with hell in his eyes and his finger on the trigger. 

He was a cute kid. His eyes were huge and made him seem like an old man in a child's body. He was cynical by ten, jaded by thirteen, and by fifteen he was dead inside. I liked him best that way - with eyes that could see straight through to your soul. 

I used to call it the Apple Test. He hated that. The sarcasm in my voice when I said it. The way I made it all a joke in just two words. He lived and breathed that test for more than ten years. The man who raised him - that nameless priest - would hold out that damned apple and Chapel would reach for it, trying to take it from him. 

He used to dream about it. Late at night, when he thought I wasn't listening, he would whisper in his sleep. (Never a day goes by that I don't smell that apple - that sickly sweet scent that never fails to make my mouth water and my fingers twitch.) He would mumble while he tossed and turned. (Everything tastes so dry and bland in comparison to how that apple will taste. Perfect, juicy, succulent.) 

When he thought about it, sometimes he could feel his teeth tearing through the skin and digging into the meat of it. He could hear the crunch of the apple giving way to his teeth. He could even feel the liquid flow into his mouth and leak out the corners when his lips couldn't hold it in. 

He had nightmares about that damned apple every night that I could spare the time. It wasn't often that I couldn't spare the time. It was easier to torture him with it on nights when he was already dreaming of Vash. For some reason, thoughts of a future with Vash made him more vulnerable to suggestions of insecurity and hints of unworthiness. 

He was sent to watch Vash. To protect him. Knives wanted to make sure that he didn't give up the search ... or the ghost. Chapel took on a new identity so that he'd blend in with the normal people more easily. I have no idea how he expected to do that with a huge fucking cross slung over his shoulder. He called himself Nicholas D. Wolfwood. I wonder if he ever decided what the 'D' was supposed to stand for. 

And so, at a little past two on the second Tuesday of the third month of the year, Chapel the Evergreen - with a nudge from me, of course - killed Nicholas D. Wolfwood. I forced him to fit the barrel of the gun against his temple, to push on it until it bit into his skin, and finally, to pull the trigger. 

The bullet tore through his skin and dug into the meat of his brain. There was a crunch as his skull gave way to the bullet. Something exploded inside his head and liquid flowed into his mouth, leaking out the corners when his lips couldn't hold it in. 

It was glorious. More perfect than any that had come before. I could feel it all - the death, the life, the blood, the tears, the suffering, and the joy - coursing through me. His death was a work of art. A masterpiece. He was my opus. 

And his last thought was "Tongari..." 

They told you the truth. They just fudged a little on the details. 


End file.
